Just A Growin

24 weeks to go!! Yay! Everything has been going smoothly. I was unable to post a pic in photobucket tonight due to the computer I am on.. so here is the most recent pic. I know that it is harder to see my growth when it isn't next to the previous pic.. but this is all you get for now. I definitely think I am growing. My mom said "Wow. You look pregnant today". I loved it needless to say!



Symptoms wise.. heartburn continues. That was a no brainer. I knew I would have it, no biggy. At the least I think I can handle a little burning esophagus and stomach. I have some prevacid that I got for free that I will soon start taking. I got it from my PCP a while ago to try, I just figured that I would wait till I was preggo because I could only imagine that that's when I would need it most. I am still holding off until it is close to unbearable. Its funny, my stomach isn't that big, yet when I sit up it puts alot of pressure on my stomach and esophagus and up comes the acid.
Next.. my boobs are finally growing! Yay! I have now reached C status. I have never had the luxury to be in the C status before and I gotta say.. I am loving it. I wonder how huge they will get when they are engorged with milk.. maybe D status?! On the subject of boobs... well this picture says it best.



You can thank Katie Mo for that wonderful illustration. :) That illustration had a couple more fun pictures with it.. hopefully I will be able to find a reason to post those soon.

Also, headaches have become more of an issue. Holy cow. Sometimes I think my head is going to fall off. Last weekend I even called the doctor because I had a headache for 3 days strait.. with no relief. I would go to bed with a headache and then wake up with one. 1000mg of tylenol could knock the pounding to a dull knock... but still.. crap! The doctor said that the only symptom in pregnancy that causes headaches was preeclampsia.. and that was highly unlikely at my stage in pregnancy (which I completely knew and didn't think that was the issue). I had just been told that if you have a headache for several days you should notify your doctor. So I did.. and it was dumb. He told me to go to the ER since I had a headache for so many days without relief. I said "Ok, thanks". Then.. I went on with my day. Really?! I am not going to go to the ER for a stupid headache. That seems a bit excessive doesn't it. I might as well be going to the hospital because I have vaginal discharge. C'mon.. lets be real. So I started to drink 1 cup of tea a day. I figured that excedrine migraine has caffeine in it.. so it must help a little. It is amazing. Technically you can have 200mg of caffeine a day and I am only drinking about 30mg. So... alls well. And I must say that the headaches have improved slightly. I quit drinking tea for 4 days and the headaches have slowly started back up. I had a mega one last night. Possibly important to note- the weather has NO IDEA what it wants to do. 60s-80s.. never know what it wants to do. Ridiculous! Oh well, I can manage.

I get to find out the sex of this baby in 2 weeks. WOW! 2 weeks is so close.. yet ages away. Please post what you think this baby is going to be, I must write it down in my pregnancy book that Katie B gave me. :)

Checkup Time

I had my 14 week checkup on Wednesday and everything was great. Doodles Baby had a heart rate of 153.. very excellent. And I hadn't gained too much weight, thank goodness. Don't get me wrong, I want to gain enough to have a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy.. but we don't need to be going all willy nilly with the weight gain. Only 4 more weeks till I (hopefully) get to find out if Baby Antebellum is a boy or girl. I am soo excited to get to call this little munchkin by a name. It is so crazy to think that this little tiny being is growing inside of me. I think I quite enjoy being an incubator. :) I have posted my 14 week photo. It looks like I am growing quite a bit. Yesterday morning I woke up and BAM.. my belly was even bigger, just from the night before. I am hopeful that I can keep those pesky stretch marks away.. but also realistic and know how high the potential is that they will creep up on me. I talked to Dr.Adams about the voiding issue and he said that it can be quite normal due to how big my uterus is and how it is taking up a lot of my pelvic space.. including my bladders area. He also said it should subside within a couple more weeks or so. Soon the uterus will come out of my pelvic space and impede on other organs.. I can't wait! (Seriously.. I think it will be fun times all around. This could be amazing!)

Other news.. Joey and I had our 2nd Wedding anniversary on Tuesday the 12Th. We went to Fogo De Chaos on the plaza. It was soo much fun. It is a Brazilian steak house and they serve tons of different kinds of meat. They have a salad bar that you can go to as many times as you desire (that is quite delish). And then when you are ready for "the meat" you turn over this card on your table to green. Green means the Gauchos (the guys with the meat) will come out and offer you tons of different types of meat.. like steak, chicken wrapped in bacon, lamb, ribs.. ect. Then when your plate is full or you think you have enough, you turn your card back to red. Red means you don't want any more meat (till later.. ;) They give you cheesy bread, garlic potatoes, polenta and caramelized bananas as sides- these are endless. You also don't just have waiter or waitress, there are several and they all help all the tables. Whenever you go to get up they will help pull your chair out and when you are ready to sit down, they will push your chair in. I felt like pretty woman. I didn't know the appropriate etiquette for such a fancy restaurant. When I got ribs I said to Joey "How am I suppose to eat this". I didn't know if it would be appropriate to pick up with my fingers. haha. Joey just said to pick it up. The bartender was very nice also. He made me a fresh limeade (made with fresh limes and condensed milk). I was worried it was going to be like $12, and he kept just bringing me out new ones without even asking. I thought "holy crap, this is gonna be expensive". So when the waitress offered to get me a fresh limeade I told her I didn't want anymore because they were so sweet. Turns out that it was only $4.25 and it was free refills. haha. I wasn't sure. Lastly I asked the waitress to take Joey and I's photo because it was our anniversary and she said "Oh.. its your anniversary" and then told someone to do something. Then she brings out this amazing chocolate turtle cheesecake mousse dessert. AMAZING! We were soo stuffed. She offered to put most of it in a to go box (thank goodness!). The restaurant was tons of fun! Then we went home and watched a movie. It was a very great anniversary!

Beauty

So 13 weeks preggo and I feel like a big fat lard butt. And I don't mean because my belly is growing so much. Because believe me.. I have waited a long time to grow this adorable baby bump. I love it, I love it, I love it!! However, my legs feel gargantuous (that means huge), my butt feels like it is growing by the minute and my face is all chunky. Also, my hair is all frizzy. I got my hair cut today, its a lil short. I didn't have time to style it (we'll get to that later), so it is back in a lil ponytail. But my ponytail is pretty small. I already feel tons better about my appearance just due to my hair. I also got my eyebrows waxed. They look tons better!! I feel like this would be an important place to tell you that I haven't gained too much weight. I think I have only gained a couple pounds thus far in the pregnancy.. so I probably don't look as awful as I am describing. However.. I feel nasty. (Side note: I don't like the word nasty. I have no idea why I decided to use that word. It sounds so.. sexual. You know what I'm saying? Oh ya.. you know. Ok that's enough.) My clothes still fit fine, I am wearing maternity clothes though. I can still wear some of my shirts, but can't wear any of my capris. My baby bump just won't allow it. I know it isn't huge.. but its big enough to make a difference in the clothes I wear. I bought some cute capris at Kohls (they were having a super good sale). I currently love them.. but I think I must buy another pair soon. I think another sale will be here before I know it. Because we all know that I won't buy a non-sale maternity item. Lets be real here!

Other news.. Im in my second trimester!! Yay. I love that Baby Antebellum and I have made this wondrous milestone. Have you seen how big Doodles Baby is? So big!! About 3.5 inches now, holy cow! Jen said that that's about the size of a poly pocket. haha



Hopefully Doodles Baby doesn't look like this, yikes! Lately I have been having a bit of flight of ideas. When I was using the restroom yesterday I was thinking "What would happen if I accidentally pushed my baby out". ( I think I was pushing too hard)How awful would that be? I know I shouldn't think about this stuff. But honestly I don't think it would really happen, I'm truly not worried about it at all. I just have these random scenarios pop into my head. Its crazy huh! But I never told anyone that I was normal.. you just assumed.

So second trimester is here (barely) and I am exhausted. Most people say that your second trimester is the easiest and all your symptoms subside for a bit, but mine are coming now. Its crazy! Like if I do anything at all (go to the bathroom, eat dinner, go to the grocery store.. ect) I need to lay down for a bit. Not always take a nap, but at least rest for a while. And a nap daily would be most amazing! What would make it even more amazing.. if Joey took it with me! I LOVE THAT! Today when I got my haircut I had complete intentions to style my hair prior to work. However, I was really exhausted and decided to take a nap instead. It was dreamy and definately worth it! I am also having issues with going potty. I literally go potty all the time. And sometimes I will go potty, stand up and have to sit back down because I still have to go. I have even done some exercises while on the toilet to help make sure all the urine is out of my bladder. Those are obviously useless. Sometimes I will go potty literally like 3 times in 10 minutes. OOC! Another issue.. I will have to go soo bad, I mean like I feel like my bladder literally can't hold any more urine. I go to the bathroom and a tiny little stream starts to trickle out. I feel as if the stream may even stop at any minute because it is going soo slow. Or sometimes it will stop in between, like this: pssss....pss...pssssss...psss and so on. It will take me 2 minutes just to get out all the urine. I feel as if I am straining muscles just trying to get this urine to empty out of my bladder. These episodes only happen at night though. Last night I had this happen and when I came back to bed Joey asked "Is everything ok?". I told him I just had to potty and he said "Well, I wasn't sure because you were in there for a long time". haha. I was in there forever because my body wouldn't allow the potty to come out at a reasonable rate.




But in all seriousness I absolutely love all the symptoms Jesus is blessing me with. I have waited long enough and I don't ever want to sound like I am complaining. I thank Jesus frequently for what he has blessed me with!

Almost There

Wow!! I am already 12 weeks and 4 days. Almost to 2nd Trimester (I think). I have had trouble figuring out when the 2nd trimester starts. Many websites have a difference in opinion. So I am just going to stick with 13 weeks. But not matter what, it is amazing. I absolutely can't wait to feel this little life inside of me kick and have hiccups. I have heard it frequently be described as "freaking you out" when it first happens.. however I am skeptical that those will be my feelings. I am so looking forward to that. I look forward to everything in my pregnancy. I need to work hard not to get a big booty though.. I kinda don't want that. But again, whatever Jesus gives me with this pregnancy I am greatful for.
My food aversions are slowly going away. I have mixed emotions about that. On one hand, now I can eat meat and don't have to worry about if Im getting enough protein. On the other hand, now I can eat almost everything. Now is when self control comes into play. I have pep talks with myself. "MaryBeth, I know that you are hungry ALL THE TIME.. but make wise choices. You can do it. Good job MaryBeth, an apple is a good choice". In reality, I don't really have too hard of a time making good choices because healthy food sounds really good. I continue to love and crave fruit and yogurt. Ooh, and on that note.. yogurt was on sale for 25 cents a container. Wow! What a mega good deal. You better believe that my frugal butt stocked up. Woohoo!! We also might be able to throw cottage cheese into the line up of yummy foods that sound delish. Man, I think I am making myself hungry. That doesn't take much.

In other news.. Beckys bridal shower was yesterday. I must say it was a success. Her cake was really cute. It said "Sweetest wishes for the soon to be Mrs". I think she really liked it. And she got a lot of amazing stuff. She gets married May 28th in the Bahamas. I must say I am a bit jelous. The Bahamas sound pretty amazing right about now.

Well, I must go eat now. I have made a photobucket slideshow of my belly growing. I know it is minimal growth at this point ( I feel as if it is mega growth.. but I see myself naked so...) I will continue to add photos every 2 weeks. Enjoy and don't make fun. :)

Let the Photos Begin

5 Weeks


7 Weeks (Joey held the camera crooked)


8 Weeks (I thought I was getting bigger so I took it a week early)


10 Weeks

Another 10 Week a little closer up.

Those are the belly pics thus far. I definitely have gotten bigger lately. But I don't mind, I love that my baby is wanting to be seen. :) I went to the doctor today for a checkup. Everything looked great. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat via doppler. It was a little difficult for the nurse to find, Baby Antebellum was moving around quite a bit. He/she just grew muscles and I guess was trying to get a good workout in. The heartbeat was 167 beats per minute. Dr.Adams said that is picture perfect healthy heart rate. Yay!! I am exactly 10 weeks today. What a relief! Dr.Adams also said weeks 8-10 are the worst for symptoms and soon should subside. So I feel super blessed because I have symptoms.. but are minimal and very easy to deal with. So.. I would like to take this time to thank Jesus for helping me and baby feel good. But also I want to send Jesus a reminder that it is fine to give me more symptoms.. just keep Baby Antebellum healthy.
We scheduled me next two appointments today. I think at the next one they will start to measure me. I am very excited for that (is that weird?). And then June 10th I am scheduled for a sonogram to find out what this little jelly bean inside of me is. Please feel free to leave a comment on what you think it might be. I have NO CLUE! I have had a lot of dreams that I have a boy. I even had a dream at the end of December that I delivered a baby boy and they handed him to me in a santa suit. The baby was soo cute, with blond hair and was so little. So in January I actually bought a baby santa suit because I felt like Jesus was sending me a message. But.. who know. I am so anxious to find out though!!

Oh Man We Were Living

As most of you know by now.. my womb is occupied!! I took down the for rent sign in my uterus because it has been filled. YAY! It has been filled for approximately 9 weeks 1 day. And let me tell you it has been amazing. I have been to the doctor and have had 3 ultrasounds. Might I say that my baby looks amazing! The last heartbeat was 176 beats per minutes which is a very healthy rate. Did I mention how smart my baby is? Oh ya.. really smart! It is so smart that it was growing 1 day big at last photo shoot. Ya.. Baby Reids brain is so full of knowledge that it had to grow 1 day bigger. :) Also..Baby Antebellum Reid is now an embryo. An EMBRYO! Getting so big, they just grow up so fast. I haven't been able to see any photos since reaching this milestone (it happened yesterday). But I do have the widget in the right hand corner for you to keep tabs on the growth. Don't be embarrassed if you check it daily.. I do.

Symptoms wise I must say I am doing pretty good. I have only had mild (very very mild) nausea. It is just the kind where I say in my head "I feel a bit nauseous right now" and then out loud I say "Lets eat, I'm starving". Holy cow, Baby Reid currently requires 1 calorie and yet constantly tells me shes/he's hungry. I am hungry non stop! But it is a hunger that is not satisfied.. ever! I am starving, so I eat and then 10 minutes later.. starving. I don't know what to do about it. Dr. Adams says to eat whenever I am hungry, but I don't think he realizes how hungry I am all the time. I have been trying to make good choices, like fruit and yogurt, but sometimes my choices aren't so grand. Things I love.. fruit, yogurt, milk and ice cream. Things that make me want to vomit: hamburger (I just threw up in my mouth while typing it), steak and ... any kind of meat really. (Ok not ALL meat) :) The first two are the absolute worst. They sound awful.

Next symptom: My irritable bowel should no longer be called just "irritable". I think I will now call it Raging Pissed Off Bowel Syndrome. I have approx 5 minutes to high tail it to the bathroom once the heat waves and stomach cramps hit. There is no cooling measure option by rolling down the windows when it is 20 degrees outside.. oh no that measure has been taken away completely. There is also no option to hold the sphincter muscle closed or attempt to pucker the butt closed (sorry for the TMI). Those options have been revoked entirely! I have to quickly run to the bathroom or else. I think you know what the "or else" option is. I will stop on the Raging Bowel Syndrome as I do not want to offend or gross you out while reading my blog. I just never knew this would be a symptom. And although I take all my symptoms and rejoice that I have symptoms because I am finally uno pregnato.. I was taken by surprise with this one. But that's fine, I tell Jesus all the time that I will gladly take any symptom he wants to give me. As I frequently say.. BRING IT!


Well thats all I have for now.. I will definately update you within the next couple days. I have some belly photos to put up. I know its early.. but we must start somewhere. :)

Maybe A Little Something

For months I have been looking at this blog. I would look at it and want so badly to write on it. But like I had said before, I was waiting to start writing again until my womb was occupied. Truth be told, for approx 2 weeks my womb was occupied. I found out I was pregnant on February 4th and started bleeding on February 5th. Darn you aunt flo. She loves me so much that she just can't stay away. Maybe I should start buying the non fluffy pillows, make her less comfortable. Needless to say... I was devastated. I wanted that beautiful little bean more than I can ever attempt to explain. But I do believe that things happen for a reason, so I have glued my heart back together and decided to get back to work. It is a bit difficult these days because nearly everyone who has decided to start trying have been impregnated on the first try. THE FIRST TRY! How does that happen?! BLAH! I am happy for them though. Jesus knows how sucky this route of TTCing is! Since the last time I wrote I have quit doing some things though. Such as: I quit praying for things that don't warrant a prayer. Such as... when I am driving in my car and am having an irritable bowel attack, I no longer pray that I can make it home without pooping in my pants or my car. If I poop in my pants... I poop in my pants. I am not going to waste a cherished prayer that could be used to help me get pregnant on not pooping in my car! I also have quit wishing. I don't wish on 11:11 anymore. Its pointless and disappointing. I have, however, started to pray almost 3 times a day. I pray to our wonderful Jesus and also to Saint Gerard. I have decided that next time I get pregnant I will name the little sticky bean Gerard. It will hold the name Gerard until the sex is decided, at which time the adorable sticky bean will then be called by thier name (Anthony, Dominic or Adrianna). Alright.. enough about that! I will be sure to post more before too long.




Here is a picture of what my baby looked like before Aunt Flo evicted him/her. Shes a jerk. (Important to note- my baby was not as sticky as this one)